What makes a colour neutral
Neutrals are greys and near-greys: colours with almost no saturation. They range from pale fog and stone through to charcoal. A true neutral leans neither warm nor cool; most useful neutrals lean slightly one way, like a warm greige or a cool blue-grey.
Grey without black
You don't need black to make grey. Mix the three primaries, or any pair of complements, until no colour wins: they cancel out to a neutral dark that you then lighten with white. With the default paints, every grey on this page is mixed that way, with no black at all.
Greys mixed from colour have more life than black plus white, which can look flat and slightly blue. Because a mixed grey contains real pigments, you can nudge it warmer or cooler to sit with the rest of your painting.
Using neutrals
- Neutrals are the quiet background that every bright colour needs. A painting with no neutrals often looks garish.
- Mix your neutrals from the same paints as the rest of the painting. They will sit in harmony with your colours.
- Paler greys make convincing skies, mist and shadows on white objects.